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NASA Creates Stunning Images of the Nearest Major Galaxies

The astronomers at NASA and Pennsylvania State University have created the most detailed ultraviolet survey of our two closest major galaxies: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

Astronomers used imagery from NASA's Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope to create stunning mosaics. The result: a 160-megapixel mosaic image of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and a 57-megapixel mosaic image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC).

"We took thousands of images and assembled them into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy, resulting in the highest-resolution surveys of the Magellanic Clouds at ultraviolet wavelengths," said Stefan Immler, who proposed the program and led NASA's contribution to the project.

The images reveal about 1 million ultraviolet light sources in the LMC and some 250,000 in the SMC.

"Prior to these images, there were relatively few UV observations of these galaxies, and none at high resolution across such wide areas, so this project fills in a major missing piece of the scientific puzzle," said Michael Siegel, the lead scientist for Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope.

You can find the high-res images and movies from the project on NASA's website.

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